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Guus Hiddink: 'You can't sack me at the end of the season
.. I'm leaving then anyway'
By Martin Lipton
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Guus Hiddink Photo Getty
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Chelsea have not even kicked a ball under Guus Hiddink
but last night the Dutchman proved he has already moved the Stamford Bridge
goalposts.
Brought in as the Blues' Red Adair after a panicking Roman Abramovich
sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari, Hiddink knows he is in a no-lose situation.
"At the end of the season I cannot be sacked!" he joked.
"Before? Maybe. But not at the end of the season because our working
relationship ends then.
"All I can do is work as I am used to doing. A manager has power,
but limited power because when you bring in your ideas it is not a revolution.
The players have to cope with the ideas and execute them.
"In this business I don't think it's important to spend too much
time worrying about risks. I love the game.
If you think too much about risks then you should sit at home and watch
plastic flowers. As long as the pressure isn't paralysing me, I can go
on for a few months."
Asked what he believed he could accomplish over the 14 weeks that begin
at Villa Park today, Hiddink cut through the nonsense as he said: "From
here, finishing second to Manchester United and getting to the Champions
League Final sounds like a movie."
Last May, of course, doing exactly that saw Avram Grant deemed a failure.
The Israeli was sacked within three days of the heartbreak in Moscow on
a night when Hiddink was mischievously asked, in front of the Chelsea
fans, if he wanted the job.
Failure under Scolari means Hiddink's status has grown but he laid the
responsibility firmly at the feet of the players.
He said: "Once the manager has prepared the plans for the game then
the execution is then up to the players.
"I like to have a recognised hierarchy in my team because they can
help boss the younger players and I see that as healthy.
"If you take the responsibility then you have the right to fail every
now and then, because they are human as well. But not by not taking responsibility.
"They must always do that, no matter who is the manager and who is
in charge. They owe that to the fans who are very loyal to the club. They
owe more to them than to managers or whoever.
"When a club is not doing what they desire, people look at the physical
fitness and say it's not at 100 per cent.
"But it's also about mental freshness when they know they are not
getting the results they want. One of the things you look for is if there
are any bad relations between the players, people avoiding each other.
"That is different from problems on the pitch and now everybody needs
to play together for the benefit of the team and respect each other. In
this new start for me, it must be a new start for them as well.
"I wanted to see whether anything which has been said about the recent
past is true.
"You can see when you play games whether the players get emotional.
You can't mask things then - you show your emotions.
"But I haven't seen that. They respect each other. What I noticed
is that they are a united squad. There are 20-plus players and I'm realistic
enough to know that one to 11 will be very happy and the rest will want
to play.
"I'm not fully aware of the struggles that went on before and I'm
not that interested in what people assume to be struggles.
"I've noticed how people behave and how people do or don't get on
with each other, but in my view that has not happened so far.
"I have watched the team from a little distance in the locker room
over the last few days and I can't see any division."
Hiddink's arrival has coincided with Abramovich's reappearance on the
Chelsea scene but while the Russian seems to have adopted him as his new
best mate, the wily 62-year-old knows that short-term infatuations rarely
last.
He added: "At Madrid I won theWorld Club Championship, the first
time they'd won it in 37 years. But then there was a clash between me
and the President (Lorenzo Sanz) about playing some players he liked in
the squad.
The consequences came in a few weeks.
"With Roman, we don't talk a lot about the specific tactics or strategy.
He loves football but we don't go into details and he doesn't ask either.
"I know he isn't showing off but while over the last few years we
have seen each other every now and then we are not 'friends friends'.
"Friends you see every day of the week and they know all the bad
things about you.
"When it comes to his interest, let's be realistic. It depends on
results and we want results - but the way Chelsea is playing is also important.
"Playing an attractive style of football gives more guarantees on
results in my opinion.
"There was no obligation, no demand from Abramovich, but I think
we must deliver and get results, not forgetting that style and the way
of playing is important as well."
Mirror.co.uk,
21/02/2009
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